BirdLife International

A global partnership, and IBAs

• BirdLife is a global partnership of national nature conservation organisations.
• It is the world’s largest such partnership, with well over 100 national member groups.
• It identifies Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs).
• IBAs hold significant numbers of threatened or migratory birds.

Not the hotspots origin

• BirdLife did not originate the “biodiversity hotspots” idea.
• That came from Norman Myers, working with Conservation International, in 1988.
• BirdLife co-founded the Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) Partnership with IUCN and others.

Founded 1922, and the Red List role

• BirdLife traces back to the International Council for Bird Preservation, founded in London in 1922.
• It took its current name in 1993.
• It is the official Red List Authority for birds under the IUCN Red List.
• Its data decides how each bird species is classified, from Least Concern to Critically Endangered.

Cambridge, and India’s partner

• The international secretariat is in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
• It coordinates work across more than 100 countries.
• The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded in 1883, is the official partner in India.

Not a single NGO

• BirdLife is not one central organisation with branches.
• Each national partner, like BNHS, is an independent organisation that BirdLife coordinates and supports.

The KBA standard, and policy reach

• Key Biodiversity Areas extend the IBA idea to sites critical for any threatened species or ecosystem.
• They use a global standard BirdLife helped write.
• BirdLife data feeds international policy, including UN biodiversity conferences.
• Its Red List assessments are seen as authoritative.

• BNHS launched a project under the National Mission for Clean Ganga.
• It aims to protect the Endangered Indian Skimmer across the Ganga Basin.
• Union Minister C.R. Patil inaugurated it.
• Local residents are trained as “Nest Guardians” and “River Guardians”.
• They protect nesting colonies, monitor birds and collect data. The project also creates local jobs.
• It spans the Chambal, the Upper Ganga near Bijnor and Narora, the Ganga-Yamuna confluence at Prayagraj, and the Lower Ganga near the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary.
• Source: Down To Earth.